hooves

KIDDING LOG 2015

Ready or not, here we go again!:-/  I am still recovering from the car wreck I had in June. My endurance isn't great and my arms and shoulder are not as strong as I had hoped they would be but the goats have their own ideas of when kidding season's to begin...

Rida had her own idea of when I would be spending time in the barn and caring for kids.  More about that in the Kidding Log below.

I will try to keep this Log updated as we go through kidding season here. I promise I will not be sugar coating the details of of any difficulties we may have.  If there is anything that you have questions about please feel free to e-mail and I will try to get back to you quickly.  We are only kidding out 14 does this year so this will be considerably shorter than in previous years.  Good luck with your kidding and enjoy your beautiful babies.

To Top Of Page

RIDA ROCKS OUR "VACATION"

2/13/15

Every year at about this time or perhaps a bit earlier, we jokingly discuss weather or not we will have the whole herd dry and for how long... Yes, we hand breed our does and presumably know when they are due within a few days but recently the "girls" have changed our plans for us. Last year we managed 2-3 milkings with everyone dry because a doe decided to wait until day 155 to kid.

This year for some unknown reason, Rida decided to deliver 20 days early. Her buckling died but the doeling was still very wet and chilled when we found her... She was born early in the evening and I spent several hours getting her warmed up and feeding her. She had both eyes still fused shut until this morning and at this time one is just about all the way open and the other is starting to open.

She finished her 18 oz of colostrum in 20 hours. She nurses vigorously and she scoots closer to the jug of hot water or away depending on how cold she is. I am giving her tiny doses of Dexmethasone to help her lungs develop. It seems to be helping as her breathing is noticeably slower and quieter after she gets her shot.

She is living in a cardboard box lined with puppy potty pads and with a gallon jug of hot water to keep her warm. The box is covered with a big thick bath towel. She is one of the very few "house" goats that we have ever had and is now in our living room in front of the wood stove. She is somewhere close to 2.5 weeks early so she may not make it. She will be properly spoiled before a buddy arrives to keep her company. The next doe due is Joanie, the first week in March. If she survives we will have to find a very special name for her. Keep your fingers crossed for her ... Looks like some 4:00 AM feedings for awhile but she eats really well and sleeps hard...I'll keep you posted as we go.

Rida Update 2/14/15

With fragile newborns things can go down hill very fast.  I'm very sorry to say that we lost our tiny baby early this morning.  Her little body was just not able to work as hard as she was working just to stay alive. Her lungs filled up with fluid and she never woke up.  We were getting pretty attached for her as she seemed to be doing so well.  I have found that if I can get the babies through the first 36 hours they do very well but those first 36 hours are critical. Rida is slowly increasing her production and we await the arrival of our first full term kids.

To Top Of Page

Joanie Just Does It!

March 14,2015

We had Joanie down for a March 5 delivery but she cruised on past that date and looked like she might hold out until late March. Yesterday she started looking a lot fuller in the udder and her ligaments seemed to disappear. We put her in the kidding stall and watched her closely. She was very quiet, ate hay off and on, increased her udder size considerably and spent a LOT of time lying down and then getting up..... Her tail was wrapped up over her back most of the time. She didn't dig in the bedding or talk at all.

About noon we noticed that she had straw stuck to her vulva and was getting up and lying down much more often. As we watched her, she started giving short pushes. She got up and gave us a nice clear view of her backside. She was stringing a nice string of clear sticky fluid. It was nearly time so out to the barn we headed and prepared to welcome her babies into the world. She talked quietly to us and got busy working on getting her kids out. After about 10 minutes of intermittent pushing I gloved up and did a two finger check to see if her baby was in position and on her way to being born... No baby was within reach of my two fingers.... We waited another 5 minutes or so and a second check revealed a nose and a foot. Joanie pushed nice and hard and very soon a nice sized foot and nose appeared. Soon after, the first baby was sputtering on the clean pad and Laurie was removing slime and rubbing her dry.

A quick check and there were two feet and a nose, and soon the second baby arrived to share in the desliming and drying process... The first kid, the doe, weighed in at 7.8 pounds and was born with one front leg back along her side. Her brother arrived in the perfect nose and toes position and weighed in at 7.2 pounds. Joanie was bit shell shocked and couldn't seem to figure out quite what had happened.....She was lying still with her back legs straight out... We told her how good she was and rubbed her leg muscles and bent the legs for her. As soon as the babies were doing well we helped Joanie up and gave her a bucket of Blue Brew... She nosed her babies a little and swigged at her Blue Brew. She came in to be milked and was helped on the stand....She gave me about a pint and a half of beautiful rich colostrum . Her udder is soft and snugly attached. Look for her in the 2 year old milker classes in the ring this summer

. Her babies each slurped down about 5 oz of colostrum and snuggled into the kid TiPi to sleep. Perfect kidding. Hoping all the rest are just like this one!

To Top Of Page
Twill Tries to Take us by Surprise

March 26, 2015

Twill came in for her grain this morning and her ligaments were gone. Her udder was fuller but still plenty slack I tried to squeeze some fluid from her udder to see if she had colostrum or not. I had a really hard time getting anything out of her udder. Her teats were clogged and only after squeezing really hard could I get it to break loose. We had dry treated Twill at dry off and we are hoping that the stuff we finally got out of her udder is coagulated dry treatment oil (they use an oil based carrier for the treatment) I decided to get all the "chunks" out if I could and see how she was doing when she freshened. We put Twill in the kidding stall so we could watch her closely as milking sometimes induces labor.

She fiddled around all day , sometimes looking like she was in labor and sometimes just hanging out. At about 3:00 I decided to check and see what I could feel with two fingers. Off to the barn and into clean gloves over clean hands and a liberal coating of lube...Nothing, no sack, no baby feet or nose....nothing but a very annoyed Twill. Her udder was still slack and she just didn't look like she was doing anything. We went back to the house and got busy with other stuff and watched her on the GOATV.

Along about 4:00PM I noticed she was lying down and talking a lot more than she had been... We turned up the sound and watched her closely. Yep she was in hard labor! Soon she was pushing hard and we headed back out to deliver her babies. The clean glove and lube routine and a quick check revealed a nose and head in the birth canal. A short search found one leg flexed at the knee and up under the boy's chest, Just a little push and I got the leg up and straightened the knee. Twill pushed like a trooper and we very quickly had a sputtering big boy on the pad and struggling to get air... Took a bit of wiping and he started breathing and his color pinked up quickly.

I checked the doe again and found one front foot and a nose all lined up and ready to arrive. A couple of good pushes later and a beautiful little girl was safely beside her brother and ready to be lugged to the milk room for her deslimeing and drying party. The boy weighed in at 8.0 pounds and the girl at 6.8 . Twill came in and stood nicely for milking and both kids eagerly slurped down a couple ounces of colostrum and we headed in to make dinner and eat.

We finally got supper finished and the dishes in the dishwasher and headed back out to do chores and feed. Twill hasn't finished cleaning so she will spend the night in the kidding pen. The kids have each finished about 8 ounces of colostrum and they are tucked into their newborn Tipi with a light for the night. A very nice kidding and a couple of healthy, strong, and hungry kids. Next up is Galen and she is progressing nicely.

To Top Of Page
GALEN GOES ALL OUT!

April 7, 2015

Galen's due date (day 150) was Thursday, April 2nd. Had I not kept records, I would probably have been very worried since she was 5 days late, according to the calendar. Well, a quick review of her kidding records showed that she has always gone over by 5-7 days. Her normal is 155 days. The same was true of her mother. Today she seemed to be in early labor and she was very content to be in the kidding stall. She is a very quiet doe and is very calm about kidding and everything else in her life. We watched her all day and it looked like she really was in labor but not getting into the pushing part. Clean hands, clean gloves and lots of lube.

Galen turned into the "helping" corner as soon as we arrived at the pen and she stood there quietly while I slowly worked my hand in looking for kid parts. I soon found the cervix soft and partially open and right behind two heads.... Uh Oh! Slow massage and stretching opened her cervix. I soon found a front foot and sorted the heads to find the match for the foot. It wasn't too hard since one foot was considerably larger than the other. I decided to work the smaller of the two kids into position for delivery...

Galen stood silently as I pulled the foot out and guided the head into position. Galen pushed nicely and I pulled the leg and soon the head was through the pelvis and a few minutes later the first girl was born... She is a good sized doe and looks like black velvet. F7 weighed in at 7 pounds. Back in to get the rest of the kids untangled and delivered. Next in line was a nice big buck kid. He had his head at the cervix but no feet ... It was easy to find his one front foot and soon I had one foot extended and the head engaged. It took a lot of pushing from Galen and my pulling and finally we had a big strapping boy on the kidding pad with his sister...F8 weighed in at a healthy 9.5 pound of starving boy!

Back into Galen to check for the final time and found another pretty black and white doe with roaning through out her black coat. F9 tipped the scales at 7.3 pounds. Galen delivered a very pretty set of triplets. LeRoy treated her to a much deserved bucket of Blue Brew.

Her beautiful trio was lugged into the milk room for their welcome party and some colostrum. We headed into the house for some dinner and a brief rest before heading back out to do evening chores. Galen came in and jumped up on her stand for milking like the pro she is. She gave a nice quart of thick yellow colostrum. We gave the kids another meal of colostrum and tucked them back into the newborn tipi for the night. Galen returned to the kidding stall where she cleaned nicely and relaxed for the night.

It was a difficult delivery but the tangle was easily fixed because the doe was not exhausted nor were the kids overly stressed by prolonged labor and there was room to adjust the kids positions because they weren't crammed up against the cervix. They all had a nice cushion of fluid and slime around them. We intervened at the right time and the doe was trusting and very relaxed. The result is 3 lovely kids and a very happy doe. We are very thankful. The kids are for sale and will be listed on our sale page. We will get pictures up as soon as we can.

To Top Of Page

CALLISTA CRUISES THROUGH

April 21, 2015

Callista has been discharging for about 3 weeks and this morning was more of the same. Just a bit of opaque and sticky, cream colored goop. Her udder was still soft and pliable and her ligaments were very faint. She gobbled her grain and acted goofy as usual. We put her back in a pen with Jemma so they could enjoy the beautiful weather and bright warm sunshine. I had a sneaking suspicion that today was her day.

After chores and breakfast I watched her from the house. She was very helpful and stood up showing me that there was no discharge then she lay down and lounged in the sunshine with her buddy, Jemma.

LeRoy came home from the dentist and went out to check on her and found a beautiful set of twins and they both had their faces nicely cleaned off . We scooped them up and took them into the milkroom to be dried and fed. The boy was apparently the firstborn as he was almost slime free. He weighed in at 6.5 pounds and was busy working on standing while I worked on drying off his sister. The girl weighed in at 6.6 pounds and was also working on standing nicely as we fed them both a bit of colostrum and tucked them into the newborn house with a light so they could rest and get completely dry.

Callista came in to be milked and did very well. She then returned to her pen with Jemma and cleaned quickly. Callista may not be the smartest doe we have ever had but she sure is a good mom... :-D Her kids are nice and strong and very good sized twins from a yearling. The doe will be offered for sale on our sale page and the boy will be off to be raised for meat.

To Top Of Page

JAEL HAS A BIT OF A JAM

April 25, 2015

Jael was showing a small string of clear goo this morning and had no interest in eating her grain. She was grumpy with the other does and seemed to want her own space so LeRoy walked up to the gate closest to our kidding pens and she walked right to him and then into her own private digs. We watched her all morning as she began to grow more and more restless. She pawed at the bedding and then wouldn't lie down but started to spend all her time standing.

At 1:15 we headed out to check her cervix and see if there was a problem.. She watched us come into the barn and then turned into the "help me" corner and stood. I scrubbed my hand and arm up to the elbow, put on gloves and slathered copious amounts of OB lube on my arm and finally filled my hand with more of the stuff... Her cervix was nicely open and very soft. I had no trouble getting in and discovered that we did indeed have a problem. Jael had lost quite a bit of fluid so the kid was fine but there wasn't a lot of extra room to move her around. I found the kid curled up like a pill bug with her back to the cervix.

I quickly located her rear feet and managed to pull them up into the birth canal. We tugged on the feet and nothing happened...Hummmm, something must be locking the kid in place....farther exploration revealed that the kid's legs were flexed up under her pelvis and even if we got the hocks extended her rump would enter the birth canal and the close confines locked them in place...Finally I had LeRoy apply strong traction on the feet while I pushed the rump forward toward the doe's head. I managed to get just enough space for the legs to extend. We quickly pulled the kid out and put her on the pad.

She had a lot of slime in her respiratory system and started flopping around trying to get air. Her tongue was black. I finally managed to suck a big wad of slime out of her throat with a bulb syringe and she started panting. I quickly checked for more kids and found none. Jael turned and started licking me and her baby and talking to both of us... Baby pinked up nicely and lots of rubbing got her dry.

Into the milk room and a long session with the hair dryer got her warm and dry. She was very stressed and not very interested in sucking but we got a couple oz of warm colostrum into her. She is resting quietly in the newborn TiPi. Jael got her warm bucket of Blue Brew and alternated between drinking it down and licking the baby. She came in and I milked over a quart of thick yellow colostrum out of her and then she returned to the kidding stall to clean.

We are very happy to have another beautiful doe kid from Jael and have tried to explain to her that having two 7 pound does would be oh so much easier on her than delivering wadded up 8.5 pound doelings! This doe kid will stay here and is my only AI kid of this season. She is amazingly long in body as well as legs... I'm working on a name for her.

Two views of Jael's doeling

To Top Of Page

JEMMA KEEPS US JUMPIN'

April 26, 2015

We woke this morning to a foggy, misty and cold morning...It was about 33 degrees and no sign of the oft promised sunshine. A few more stiff muscles than usual but off to the barn we headed. LeRoy fed the bucks while I got the bed made and my shoes on. I looked out the window to see him headed to the shed. He returned to the barn with a bottle of heat treated colostrum and I hurried out to welcome the new arrival.

We knew that Jemma was getting close to delivery but we left her in her pen with our other milking yearling, Callista. During the wee hours of the morning sometime Jemma delivered a very pretty single doe kid weighing in at 6.5 pounds. Not only did she have the kid by herself but she cleaned her off beautifully and fluffed her dry. Baby was lying against the side of the pen with Jemma up against her keeping her toasty warm. It was quite chilly here last night but all was well with the mom and her baby.

We scooped the baby up and put her in the basket in the milkroom where she quickly stood up and watched while we got everyone fed and milked . Baby wasn't much interested in eating so we figured that Jemma had fed her too. It was a clue when I found one side of Jemma's udder at least half empty. :-) Baby is now snuggled into the newborn TiPi with Jael's baby and all is quiet.

Jemma has cleaned and soon will go into the milker herd. It is likely to be a bit of a tough transition for her as her buddy Callista will be heading off to a new home soon and the big does will make sure that Jemma knows her place. Jemma is a quiet doe so I expect she will be fit in nicely. Well done , Jemma! That's the way we like em!

To Top Of Page

ZAMAR ZONKS US!

May 11, 2015

Zamar has been waddling around for the past two weeks or more.  She was so wide that we didn't have the heart to make her jump up on the stand for her grain.  She played it to the hilt and scored lots of extra scratches and cookies.  This morning I checked her udder and found it was considerably larger than last night.  It also had colostrum in it.  We put her back in the doe pen while we cleaned up the milk room and pasteurized milk for the babies.  She wanted to separate herself from the herd so we put her back in the kidding stall and watched her working on positioning her kids all day long. 

At 3:30 this afternoon I washed up and put on exam gloves, coated my arm and hand on both sides with OB lube and I slowly and carefully entered the doe...Her tail head was loose so I could get my hand in but the cervix hadn't thinned or opened much more than an inch in diameter or so. I massaged the cervix gently and could feel a kid directly behind.  We decided to leave her and let her work on it for awhile.  We came in and I got dinner in the oven because I had a suspicion that she would be in hard labor soon..  We just were finishing dinner when Zamar started pushing in earnest.  Back out to the barn and again the scrubbing and gloving and lubing was accomplished.  A check of the cervix found it thinned down nicely but had not opened very much.  About 5 minutes of slow stretching and I could get my hand through. I found a kid literally wadded up across the cervix.  I located two front feet and got them through the birth canal.  Tugging the feet and Zamar's pushing didn't move the kid so I went back in and found the baby's head twisted down and under her body.

Turning it up and into position was not happening. I finally had to push the legs back in in order to make enough room to get the head into position.  I got a good grip with my hand on top of the baby's head and drew it up and through the birth canal.  After the head was out I slid my hand back in beside the head and found one front leg, as I drew the leg up into position Zamar pushed hard and I drew an feisty and strong little black doe kid into the world. 

A bit of a rest and LeRoy got a warm bucket of Blue Brew and offered it to Zamar.  She drank down several nice gulps and we continued on. The second born was again a nice 6.6 pound gold and white doe. She was strong and breathing well so I checked  Zamar and again found a kid. I retrieved one front leg and Zamar pushed as I tugged the handsome buckling out and onto the pad .  He was doing well and weighed in at 7.2 pounds.  Zamar and I set to work cleaning slime and suctioning out the airways and giving everyone a welcoming rubdown.  Trampus suddenly appeared in the stall and got busy on the third kid.  He was busy licking and Zamar was busy licking right beside him.  All was going well until Zamar wanted to work on the kid Trampus was licking.  Trampus growled bared his teeth (I assure you  those are formidable teeth) and snapped at Zamar.  Zamar insisted and he did it again.  He was sternly reprimanded and cuffed on the nose for his behavior and when he did it again he was ordered from the stall in disgrace. Zamar did butt him the third time but he knows better. 

The babies were lugged to the milk room and dried and fluffed and Trampus was allowed to help again.  He seems to think these kids are his.  Zamar came in and I milked over a quart of nice rich colostrum out of her and returned her to the kidding stall.  She cleaned by 8:00PM but continued to strain. I went out and gave her 2 cc of Banamine at 10PM and she is resting comfortably.  Banamine is a pain reliever, an anti inflamatory and it stops uterine contractions.  We don't give it to a doe until after she has cleaned.   Zamar is now resting comfortably and we are keeping an eye on her and Josee.

The two girls plus pregnant Zamar

To Top Of Page

JOSEE JUMPS IN!

May 13, 2015

Josee has been carrying her pregnancy very well and has been jumping up on her stand for her grain with no apparent problem. She was moving a bit slow last night so we put her in the kidding stall so we could watch her all night. She spent the night sitting like a big dog or lying propped up on her knees so she could breathe. We were having a much needed rainy day here today so we just put her back in the kidding stall after her morning grain.

She was restless but calm and seemed to be pushing lightly. She stopped eating and drinking at 3:00PM so we headed out to see how she had progressed. The hand scrubbing, gloving, and lube applying was quickly accomplished and I quickly checked and found her nicely open with a kid in perfect nose and toes position. We got a fresh kidding pad and several clean towels out and I helped Josee deliver a beautiful black and red and white buckling. She stood patiently while I checked again and this time helped her deliver a nice black and white roan doe. Checking again I discovered another nose and toes and delivered another red and white buckling. Back in for a final check...I thought, and found a perfect rear presentation and delivered a beautiful red and white doeling. This time the real final check revealed that there were no more kids to be found.

The kids weighed in at 6.9lb buck, 7.3 doe, 6.6 buck and 6.0 doe. All 4 kids are vigorous and starving and standing before they were 30 minutes old. Josee cleaned before 5:00PM and is wanting to return to the herd. The kids were all dried, the girls got their collars and everyone was fed a substantial first meal. Josee gave me a half gallon of very thick yellow colostrum that had to be thinned with milk before it would go through the nipple.

This was as nice of a kidding as Zamar's was hard. We are very thankful and my old body is much happier. Josee's contractions seemed to be less effective in moving her kids along than perhaps I could have wished but I have found that does who have four or five seem to have their uterus stretched so far that their contractions don't always move the kids along very efficiently. Josee was very happy to guzzle down her Blue Brew and cleaned very quickly.

The Girls (Above), The Boys (Below)

To Top Of Page

KINSEY KEEPS US KICKIN!

May 14, 2015

Kinsey has been hanging around the barn all day long. The does would head out to pasture and she would lie in the corner of the barn quite contentedly. She didn't eat her grain this morning and she seemed to have no ligaments. At about 4:30 LeRoy put her in the kidding stall so we could watch her closely. Soon the little string of clear goo was replaced by a pencil sized string of amber goo streaked with blood... Kinsey was up and down frequently and silently pushing...We watched her as her ears rose to an almost horizontal position as she extended her back leg...The afternoon was beautiful and warm with plenty of sunshine still we waited. No babies.

I fixed dinner and we ate, relaxed a few minutes and then headed out to do evening chores. Kinsey was still stringing but didn't appear to be in distress. We got the chores and milking done and fed all the newborns and checked on Kinsey again. She as still doing the same routine of up and down, pushing, and up and down some more. We again watched her from the house until 9:15PM then headed out to see how Kinsey was progressing and to see if the kids were in good position.

Well...Kinsey is an average sized doe and after washing, gloving and lubing I checked and found that she as nicely open with a kid just at the end of her birth canal. The kid was lying with his head twisted so that his ear was resting on his feet.. I worked the feet out and tugged them straight making it so the head was resting on his knees. LeRoy then pulled slowly moving the kid's legs up and down and trying several different angles while I stretched the tissues around and kept checking on the kids head position. This kid was quite big for Kinsey to deliver. He weighed in at 9.9 pounds and has a large bone structure. Several pulling sessions giving everyone a rest in between and soon the big guy was thrashing around on the pad. LaNette got his face cleared and we suctioned quite a bit of goo from his mouth.

After a through drying and fluffing and attempts to get him to suck we finally resorted to tubing him. He wasn't very happy about that but we got 4 oz of colostrum into him and put him in the tipi with Josee's two girls... He is a bit lethargic and wanted to sleep. I'm sure he will be more active after he naps a bit and by morning he will probably be terrorizing those two doelings he is with. He is a handsome fella. Kinsey was milked and then returned to the kidding stall to clean.

To Top Of Page

COROMELL CRUISES THOUGH

May 16, 2015

This bight warm and humid morning found us watching Coromell and Sukey closely. Both does were restless and wanted to be separate from the herd. We put them in the kidding stalls and watched them though out the morning. They both spent all their time rearranging the bedding and getting up and lying down. About 1:00 Coromell stated stringing birthing goo.

Out we went and prepared to check on her babies positions. I am not used to delivering kids in a short sleeved t-shirt! Coromell settled into the business corner of the pen and together we delivered two very nice youngsters of average size. Both of them were strong and healthy boys. A check revealed that there was another kid down at the bottom of the uterus. A bit of maneuvering and we finally had one leg and the head out... This kid was considerably larger than his two brothers so required some strong pushes and and firm tugging to get this boy out and started.

The boys all snorted and gasped and started life with gusto... Laurie got her usual dose of slime and the boys were dried fed and put to bed in the tipi after evicting the two doelings from Josee. Thanks for your help Laurie we sure enjoyed your visit and those nasty cookies :-) The boys weighed in at a healthy 7.2, 7.1, and 8.8 pounds. Momma and boys are doing fine. The boys have already finished about 9 oz of colostrum each and are standing and strong.

To Top Of Page

SUKEY SURPRISES THE HECK OUT OF US!

May 16, 2015

Sukey is a very correct and somewhat small doe. She is a second freshening two year old and is following in her mother's foot steps in that she is growing slowly.. Like Sharik, I don't expect her to reach her full size until late in her 4th year. Sukey has been getting around very well and jumping on her stand for her gain twice a day. She was wide but not exceptionally so and nicely deep.

After Coromell delivered her boys I scrubbed up again, changed gloves and checked to see how far along Sukey was. Her cervix was nice and soft and opening nicely but she wasn't ready yet. We let her back with the herd and watched her closely. A couple hours later she was staying in the back corner of the barn while the herd went out to pasture. We put her back in the kidding stall where she rearranged the bedding like a somewhat deranged interior design consultant. We watched and listened to her all through dinner. She was restless and beginning to push more seriously.

At 7:00PM we headed out for evening chores. I scrubbed, gloved and lubed as usual and quickly discovered that Sukey was indeed ready to deliver The first kid was ready to enter the birth canal head only. I fished up one leg and together we slowly drew her first little package into the world. Our friend LaNette came out and started suctioning slime from the kid's mouth and started removing a generous coating of slime.

I checked to see if there was another kid and there was, again presenting head first. It took a bit longer this time to get a hold on one front leg. Soon another very slimy kid sputtered its way onto the kidding pad. We all figured that this was it for Sukey but I made a last check and discovered another kid again with a head only approach to the world. This one really had the feet tucked back and out of reach...I managed to find the elbow and to work one leg up with the head. A strong tug and the third kid arrived in a splash of slime and fluid.

The three kids weighed in at 6.5. 6.1 and 6.2 pounds. A really nice uniform set of triplet does! LaNette worked on getting them all suctioned clear and dried and fluffed and fed. I milked and made ID bands for the girls and applied them as each kid was dry and I checked to be sure that they were all perfect. LeRoy was busy feeding the lambar kids and making sure the newest kids on the Lambars filled up. Then he got busy bottle feeding the 4 boys. We managed to get all the kids fed and tucked in, all the does milked, everyone fed and then returned Sukey to the kidding stall to clean. She eagerly slurped down a gallon of blue brew, is working on cleaning and is getting some well earned rest. She will return to the Doe pen in the morning.

To Top Of Page

TAIS IS THE TAIL!

July 12,2015

Yes! Tais finally did it. Her 150th day was July 10. That was the day we were supposed to leave for the National show. We had to stay home so I didn't induce her for an early delivery. In fact if we hadn't had a positive pregnancy test I would have doubted that Tais had even settled... Her udder was pretty much empty and other than her tailhead lifting she looked like a dry doe. On Sunday morning, instead of coming in to get her grain she ran from LeRoy. Hummmmmm! Very definitely not her usual behavior. I sent LeRoy with her to the kidding pen.

We finished up chores and came in for breakfast. Off we headed to church and LeRoy dropped me off at home afterward while he headed to town to get a paper. We had company coming for a 3:00PM dinner so I got busy and stuffed the chicken and got it on the spit for smoke/roasting and prepped the rest of the meal all while watching Tais on our GOATV. She was restless and quietly talking to her belly. Our guests arrived right on time and we enjoyed our meal and visiting. Just as they were getting ready to head home Tais turned her rump to the camera and showed a nice rope of birthing goo! It was time... Out we went with all the company.

Tais was happy to see us and proceeded to start pushing nicely. I got my gloves on clean hands and checked to see if the kid was in position... I found 2 BIG feet :-( LeRoy got Tais to stand up so I could make sure the head was in position...It was and Tais was quite ready to deliver this big kid. I straightened out the legs and carefully stretched the tissues as Tais pushed like a trooper. Very quickly the baby arrived. The birth sack clung to her body as there was little fluid left to cushion her birth. Tais soon got to work licking at her big girl. We got her dried, and fluffed and fed a nice meal of colostrum.

Baby weighed in at 9.1 pounds of very strong and very wide girl! Congratulations on your new baby Cheryl! Your beautiful girl is here. Cheryl has named her Reuel Tais' JET Tassel. She is a Jethro daughter and we are looking forward to seeing her grow up. Our visiting "City Kid" did a great job drying her off for us and wasn't even put off by the slime :-) Good job, Joy!

Two Views of Tais' big girl

To Top Of Page

SUMMARY KIDDING 2015

Well, It has been quite a long and drawn out kidding season. We started off with an abortion in mid February. Of course having a doe abort late in her gestation is always a worry. It turned out that our fears were unfounded and all turned out just fine. In addition to the inauspicious start there was the worry that, due to my injuries from a car accident last year, I wouldn't be physically able to assist the does if they needed a lot of help. That fear also was unfounded. All 13 does did a great job getting their kids in position to be delivered. There were a few who needed a little help getting heads or feet into position, a couple that needed their kids shifted from across the cervix, some that needed extra help pulling as they tried to deliver kids weighing over 9 pounds. Our biggest kid was a buckling that tipped the scale at 9.8 pounds.

It was an excellent kidding season. We had 4 single births, 4 sets of twins , 4 sets of triplets and 1 set of quads. We only lost the 3 kids that Rida aborted a month early. We had 12 bucks and 16 does born. All the does are doing just fine as are their kids. We are very thankful. Next week we will be weaning the last pen of keeper kids and will only have Tassel left on milk until her new owner can come to get her. Our calves are growing nicely and will be very happy to take care of all the milk we have for them and I will need to get busy and make up some batches of Chevre for us. :-)

We would like to thank our customers for their faith in our breeding program and for their purchases of animals from us. As soon as the breeding page is updated for next year we will again accept deposits on next year's kid crop. Thank you all again and we wish you great success with your kids and does. Plans for August and September include two fairs as exhibitors and I am contracted to judge one youth show. Between now and then we will be busy getting the breeding schedule figured out, the camper cleaned and packed, and all those management items that one needs to keep up to date to have the herd looking its best for the show ring. We hope to see you at one of the fairs and we hope you enjoyed hanging out with us for the adventure that is kidding season. Please feel free to get in touch with any questions you might have.

To Top Of Page

Back to the Kidding Schedule

To read our 2014 Kidding Log, click here